sciencedaily.com031020055155.htmOpen ↗
Source: University Of California Berkeley Date: 2003-10-20
Dangerous Herbal Readily Available Through Web Despite FDA Import Ban A Chinese herbal product known
to cause kidney failure and cancer in people and banned for importation two years ago by the U.S.
Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is readily available through the Internet, pointing out the need
for FDA policies regulating the sale of dangerous herbals through the Web, according to University
of California, Berkeley researcher Lois Swirsky Gold.
In a letter in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Gold, who directs the
Carcinogenic Potency Project at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, reports that
herbal products containing aristolochic acid can be easily purchased through the Internet, despite
105 documented cases of rapid kidney failure due to use in a Belgian clinic in 1993 of a diet
supplement containing the herbal extract. Half of the 39 women who had their kidneys removed after
taking the supplement were found to have cancer of the urinary tract, the letter notes. Kidney
failure associated with aristolochic acid has been seen in eight other countries and urothelial
cancer in two other countries, Gold said.
Many names are used for such products, including fang ji (Aristolochia fangchi) and wild ginger
(Asarum canadense). The herbal products, which include those marketed as "Cramp Relief," "Cold
Away," "Mother Earth's Cough Syrup," "Old Indian Herbal Syrup" and "PMS-Ease," are recommended on
the Web for gastrointestinal symptoms, weight loss, cough, immune stimulation and menstrual cramps,
among others. A list of products is at potency.berkeley.edupotency.berkeley.eduOpen ↗. [...]